Cook Confirms Apple Intelligence China Beta for Late October, Siri AI Excluded
Cook says China's first Apple Intelligence features are approved and will enter beta in late October, excluding Siri AI.
Cook said, “We’re excited to have received approval for bringing the original, core set of Apple Intelligence features like Live Translation, Clean Up in Photos, and Writing Tools, to our users in China and we look forward to making them available in an upcoming beta later this month.” The remarks were made while Cook visited a Blue Box in Shanghai, iFanr reported.
The first batch will cover writing tools, image clean-up, and live translation, but Chinese users will need to wait for the revamped Siri AI. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to officially launch Apple Intelligence in mainland China in December through an iOS 27.3 update, covering iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Cook’s confirmation concerns the beta arrangement; whether the official version will still launch in December as previously planned is not yet settled.
The model partnership behind the China version is also becoming clearer. iFanr previously learned exclusively that Apple’s AI cooperation with Alibaba includes at least two forms: integrating Qwen’s AI capabilities directly into Apple Intelligence, and jointly training a China-specific model. Alibaba previously told iFanr that Qwen will provide text and image understanding, content generation, and other capabilities for Chinese users on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS, allowing users to use related AI functions directly on Apple devices without frequently switching apps.
Apple and Alibaba will also jointly train and optimize a dedicated model around Chinese user needs and local services, further improving the underlying capabilities of Apple Intelligence in China. The cooperation has therefore extended to model training. But how the overall partnership corresponds to the beta features opening at the end of this month still has no complete answer. When the jointly trained model will be used, and when the new Siri AI will land on China-market devices, also await further announcements from Apple.
iFanr said it will continue to follow the rollout of Apple Intelligence in China and provide hands-on experience after the beta is released.
Editor's Summary
Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that the first core Apple Intelligence features, including Live Translation, Clean Up in Photos, and Writing Tools, have been approved for China and will enter beta later this month. The new Siri AI is excluded from the first test, and the formal launch timeline remains unclear after Bloomberg reported a December target. Apple’s China AI effort is also tied to a partnership with Alibaba that includes Qwen integration and joint model training.